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Christmas Is A Sad Season For The Poor 73

Christmas is a Sad Season season when you’re poor.” appeared with a tray of covered dishes, and Mrs.
"Do you have any children, Charlie?" DePaul came out of the living room. "Merry
for the Poor Mrs. Fuller asked. Christmas, Charlie," she said. "I had Mr. DePaul
"Four living," he said. "Two in the carve the goose early, so that you could have
grave." The majesty of his lie overwhelmed some, you know. I didn't want to put the dessert
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him. "Mrs. Leary's a cripple," he added. on the tray, because I was afraid it would melt,
"How sad, Charlie," Mrs. Fuller said. you know, so when we have our dessert, we'll
Then he thought about poor kids. He sat down
She started out of the elevator when it reached call you."
on a chair in the lobby and thought about them.
the lobby, and then she turned. "I want to give "And what is Christmas without
your children some presents, Charlie," she said. presents?" Mr. DePaul said, and he brought a
They got the worst of it. Beginning in the fall, "Mr. Fuller and I are going to pay a call now, but large, flat box from the hall and laid it on top of
there was all this excitement about Christmas when we come back, I want to give you some the covered dishes.
and how it was a day for them. After things for your children." "You people make it seem like a real
Thanksgiving, they couldn't miss it. It was fixed
He thanked her. Then the bell rang on 4, Christmas to me," Charlie said. Tears started
so they couldn't miss it. The wreaths and
and he went up to get the Westons. into his eyes. "Thank you, thank you."
decorations everywhere, and bells ringing, and
"It isn't much of a holiday for me," he "Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas!"
trees in the park, and Santa Clauses on every
told them when they wished him a merry they called, and they watched him carry his
corner, and pictures in the magazines and
Christmas. "Christmas is a sad season when dinner and his present into the elevator. He took
newspapers and on every wall and window in
you're poor. You see, I live alone in a furnished the tray and the box into the locker room when
the city told them that if they were good, they room." he got down. On the tray, there was a soup, some
would get what they wanted. Even if they "Poor Charlie," Mrs. Weston said. "I kind of creamed fish, and a serving of goose.
couldn't read, they couldn't miss it. They know just how you feel. During the war, when The bell rang again, but before he answered it,
couldn't miss it even if they were blind. It got
Mr. Weston was away, I was all alone at he tore open the DePauls' box and saw that it
into the air the poor kids inhaled. Every time
Christmas. I didn't have any Christmas dinner or held a dressing gown. Their generosity and their
they took a walk, they'd see all the expensive
a tree or anything. I just scrambled myself some cocktail had begun to work on his brain, and he
toys in the store windows, and they'd write
eggs and sat there and cried." Mr. Weston, who went jubilantly up to 12. Mrs. Gadshill's maid
letters to Santa Claus, and their mothers and
had gone into the lobby, called impatiently to was standing in the door with a tray, and Mrs.
fathers would promise to mail them, and after
his wife. "I know just how you feel, Charlie," Gadshill stood behind her. "Merry Christmas,
the kids had gone to sleep, they'd burn the Mrs. Weston said. Charlie!" she said. He thanked her, and tears
letters in the stove. And when it came Christmas By noon, the climate in the elevator came into his eyes again. On the way down, he
morning, how could you explain it, how could
shaft had changed from bacon and coffee to drank off the glass of sherry on Mrs. Gadshill's
you tell them that Santa Claus only visited the
poultry and game, and the house, like an tray. Mrs. Gadshill's contribution was a mixed
rich, that he didn't know about the good? How
enormous and complex homestead, was grill. He ate the lamb chop with his fingers. The
could you face them when all you had to give
absorbed in the preparations for a domestic bell was ringing again, and he wiped his face
them was a balloon or a lollipop?
feast. The children and their nursemaids had all with a paper towel and went up to 11. "Merry
On the way home from work a few
returned from the Park. Grandmothers and aunts Christmas, Charlie," Mrs. Fuller said, and she
nights earlier, Charlie had seen a woman and a
were arriving in limousines. Most of the people was standing in the door with her arms full of
little girl going down Fifty-ninth Street. The who came through the lobby were carrying packages wrapped in silver paper, just like a
little girl was crying. He guessed she was packages wrapped in colored paper, and were picture in an advertisement, and Mr. Fuller was
crying, he knew she was crying, because she'd
wearing their best furs and new clothes. Charlie beside her with an arm around her, and they both
seen all the things in the toy-store windows and
continued to complain to most of the tenants looked as if they were going to cry. "Here are
couldn't understand why none of them were for
when they wished him a merry Christmas, some things I want you to take home to your
her. Her mother did housework, he guessed, or
changing his story from the lonely bachelor to children," Mrs. Fuller said. "And here's
maybe was a waitress, and he saw them going
the poor father, and back again, as his mood something for Mrs. Leary and here's something
back to a room like his, with green walls and no
changed, but this outpouring of melancholy, and for you. And if you want to take these things out
heat, on Christmas Eve, to eat a can of soup.
the sympathy it aroused, didn't make him feel to the elevator, we'll have your dinner ready for
And he saw the little girl hang up her ragged any better. you in a minute." He carried the things into the
stocking and fall asleep, and he saw the mother elevator and came back for the tray. "Merry
looking through her purse for something to put
At half past one, 9 rang, and when he went up, Christmas, Charlie!" both of the Fullers called
into the stocking—This reverie was interrupted
Mr. DePaul was standing in the door of their after him as he closed the door. He took their
by a bell on 11. He went up, and Mr. and Mrs.
apartment holding a cocktail shaker and a glass. dinner and their presents into the locker room
Fuller were waiting. When they wished him a
"Here's a little Christmas cheer, Charlie," he and tore open the box that was marked for him.
merry Christmas, he said, "Well, it isn't much of
said, and he poured Charlie a drink. Then a maid
a holiday for me, Mrs. Fuller. Christmas is a sad (Continued on Page 74)